The Order's means of communication...

[Lisa (Jennings) Mamula]

No: HPFGUIDX 122510


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tonks" <tonks_op at y...> wrote:
> Tonks here: 
> Nice idea. [about house elves being the Order's means of communication]  
> I thought someone said that JKR said that they use their 
> wands, but maybe that was just a speculation. 

LisaMarie concurs:
JKR herself (long may she prosper) states, in the "Rumors" section of her 
website, that the Order's means of communication "requires nothing but a 
wand,"  and that we have seen it employed by an Order member, but before 
we knew the Order existed. 
(link: http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/rumours_view.cfm?id=26)

I am enclined to agree with Meng Yu, who stated upthread that the most likely 
means would be the Patronus (or something that looks very much like a 
Patronus), as we see it used in GoF when DD summons Hagrid to the edge of 
the Forest when Crouch Sr. appears and Krum is attacked.  

Reason #1***It requires /only/ a wand.  
Reason #2***DD is an Order member.  (obviously)
Reason #3***We didn't know about the Order at this time, but we were about  
                         to find out about it.  
DIGRESSION: Whether DD was an Order member *at the time* is a matter of 
some question and interpretation, but inconsequential, IMO.  I think that canon 
states that the Order had not been reformed until LV's rebirth, thus Lupin's 
comment to Molly Weasley that "You weren't in the Order last time ..."  (OOTP) 
This implies that the Order did not exist while there was only disembodied, 
inactive LV.  Like I said, a minor point, but hey; I teach high schoolers.  I'm 
used to explaining things very clearly.
[And I'm sorry I can't supply exact canon locations for the above references; 
I'm at school, and my books are at home.  If I were a real fan, I guess I would 
keep copies in my classroom, huh?] 
#4***It is not vulnerable to interception or trickery (something else Jo 
mentions in the above link).

Relatedly, we have seen a Patronus do as it was told: in the 'Dudley 
Demented" chapter of OOTP, when Harry's Patronus drives away the first 
Dementor, he orders it to turn and drive off the other, too, and it does.  This is 
the only instance I know of where a Patronus does as it's told, but maybe we 
just haven't been fully educated on the functions of the Patronus yet.

So, what does the rest of the HPfGU world think of this theory?  


Tonks:
>Someone else suggested cats. (sorry, don't remember who). I think that cats 
>are how Squibs communicate with the WW. After all every Squib we know 
>has one!!

I have often wondered about the bizarre love affair that is Filch and Mrs. 
Norris, but I had not connected that with our other (much more likeable) 
Squib-in-residence, Mrs. Figg.  Good one!  Maybe there is something there.  I 
wonder just how Mrs. Norris manages to "report" students to Filch.  
Personally, I have always found Mrs. Norris more than a little unsettling.  Just 
wondering what everyone else thinks of her.

LisaMarie, who is glad to be back after a 3-month detour into the world of 
fanfiction  <g>